Sears Point: Ford teams race quotes

MARCOS AMBROSE -- No. 21 Little Debbie Honey Buns Ford Fusion (finished
42nd)
"It's just very unfortunate. We were racing really good
there. The Wood Brothers and the whole crew gave me a great car. We
were fighting with Elliott [Sadler] pretty...

"It's just very unfortunate. We were racing really good
there. The Wood Brothers and the whole crew gave me a great car. We
were fighting with Elliott [Sadler] pretty hard; he got into the back
of us, spun us out, but that wasn't the problem -- I was actually
just selecting first gear on the downshift when he hit me. It's just
unfortunate, one of those deals. But, we leave here with our heads
held high. We raced hard and we raced well at the front there, and
it was just a lot of fun."

YOU MUST BE SATISFIED WITH YOUR DEBUT. "I
couldn't believe it, you know? Here I am passing Jeff Gordon and racing
with Earnhardt -- it's just fantastic. It's what I dreamed about,
dreamed what it would be like, and it's certainly like that. It's just
fantastic. It's just a shame we couldn't finish the race."

MORE ON HIS
DEBUT. "Yeah, I'm just so excited about it. I would never have dreamt
that we would've run this well. I just wanted to try to get in the race
and just race. We did that, we ran up front, raced some guys, with
Gordon and Earnhardt -- just a blast. It was everything I dreamt it
would be like."

IS THERE A LESSON THAT YOU TAKE OUT OF TODAY? "It's hard
work. I wish I would've come over 10 years ago. I'm just so lucky to
have this opportunity with Little Debbie and the Wood Brothers crew. I
just want to thank them so much for giving me the chance. Road racing is
my background, it's where I feel most comfortable. I'm not saying every
week is going to be like this; this is definitely a race I'm going to
remember for a long time."

YOU MADE UP A LOT OF GROUND AFTER YOUR FIRST
PIT STOP. DID YOU GET MORE DOWNFORCE? "Not really -- just had to drive
harder. We were just rolling around there through the first third of
the race. The pressure's coming on there the last part of the race, and
unfortunately we just didn't make it home. What happened in the incident
when Elliott got into the back of me, I was just downshifting to first
gear and the impact behind me just must've shoved the gearbox and broke
the gears. We actually finished without first gear -- it put a hole in
the gearbox casing. We didn't want to oil the track down for everybody
else. We leave with our heads held high."

***

LEN WOOD -- co-owner No. 21 Little Debbie Honey Buns Ford Fusion

HOW
DID HE MARCOS AMBROSE DO IN HIS DEBUT? "He did what we all expected
-- to put it up front. He managed to get up in the top five -- pretty
much most of the time no worse than a sixth- or seventh-place car. It
was just unfortunate the way it worked out. He just got hit in the rear
wheel. I don't know whether -- when he went to change gears and go to
first gear it must've broken first gear and thrown a tooth out of the
side of the case. There's a hole in the transmission. Pit strategy was
worked great and the car was good -- it just didn't work out.

***

GREG BIFFLE -- No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (finished 11th)

YOU MADE A LOT
OF SPOTS UP AFTER DROPPING FROM THE LEAD. "Yeah. I mean, I feel stupid.
I just had a bunch of rubber on the tires and just screwed up."

IS THAT
A CONDITION YOU DON'T KNOW UNTIL AFTER THE FACT? "Yeah, obviously. The
thing is, it caught me off-guard. Here's what caught me off-guard --
our tires don't shed rubber anymore, they put off powder or dust. Well,
this was the first race track where there's marbles again -- the old
famous marbles. And I had it all over my tires, and when I made the
first initial left, I just thought it was because the nose was up in the
air because we were going so slow, and I kept in the gas a little bit.
If I would've let off then, then I would've been okay. But, just gum on
the tires, like bubblegum -- all that stuff rolled up on the tires. And
you had to peel it all off before the car would turn or stop -- and I
just ran off the race track."

AFTER YOU DROPPED TO 30TH, YOU MADE UP 19
SPOTS, SO YOU OBVIOUSLY HAD A GOOD RACE CAR. "I did. I had a good car. I
probably stood a chance at winning if I could've gotten out front. But,
I just screwed. That's all there is too it. I feel bad for the guys,
real bad for 3M, and everybody who works so hard on these cars. We did
our pit strategy right, we got the lead, and I just drove off the track
on the green flag."

***

MATT KENSETH -- No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (finished 8th)

A TOP-10
FINISH ON A ROAD COURSE MUST MAKE YOU VERY HAPPY. "I feel like we won.
This is the only track on the circuit that we never had a top-10 at,
and we fixed that today. That's my best finish ever here -- and Dale
Jr., too, that was pretty fun racing him at the end. I think that's
both of our first top-10s -- I think it's the only track neither one of
us had a top-10 at, so that's pretty cool that we drove hard and got a
good finish."

YOU'VE NOW MOVED INTO THE TOP 12. IS IS TOO EARLY IN THE
SEASON FOR YOU TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT BEING IN THE TOP 12? "I don't know
if it's ever too early to look at it -- you always look at it on the
way home, especially if you're moving up to see where you're at and see
what happened. But, the bottom line is really you do the best you can
every week, and try to finish as high as you can and try to lead laps
and do all that and the points take care of themselves -- the higher you
finish, the more points you get. So, really, it's not a strategy, when
you race hard and try to be smart and do the right things and hopefully
get some good finishes and get back in it."

***

JAMIE McMURRAY -- No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (finished 18th)

WHAT
HAPPENED LATE IN THE RACE? "I don't know. I just got run into the back
of. I guess the 29 car wheel-hopped or, I don't know, just drove over
his head. We had a second- or third-place car and should've finished
there, and we didn't."

WHEN YOU HAVE A CAR THAT'S THAT GOOD, AND YOU'RE
RUNNING WELL, AND THEN SOMETHING HAPPENS THROUGH NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN
TO COST YOU A GREAT FINISH, HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT? "There's nothing
you can do about that. You can't really focus on your results. I think,
as a driver, you do your job and the team did their job. We had a good
car, we had a good pit strategy, good fuel mileage, I drove really well
-- just had a guy get out of control and get into us. That's out of our
control, so what are you going to do?"